Owing to the difficulty of obtaining direct access to the functioning brain, new approaches are needed for the indirect exploration of brain disorders in neuroscience research. Due to its embryonic origin, the retina is part of the central nervous system and is well suited to the investigation of neurological functions in psychiatric and addictive disorders. In this review, we focus on cannabis use, which is a crucial public health challenge, since cannabis is one of the most widely used addictive drugs in industrialized countries...

Stabilization of neuronal plastic changes is mediated by transient gene expression, including transcription of the activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated gene (Arc), also known as Arg 3.1. Arc is implicated in several types of synaptic plasticity, including synaptic scaling, long-term potentiation, and long-term depression. However, the precise mechanisms by which Arc mediates these forms of long-term plasticity are unclear. It was recently found that Arc protein is capable of forming capsid-like structures and of transferring its own mRNA to neighboring cells...

Over the last three decades there has been an accumulation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies reporting that aberrant functional networks may underlie cognitive deficits and other symptoms across a range of psychiatric diagnoses. The use of pharmacological MRI and 1 H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) has allowed researchers to investigate how changes in network dynamics are related to perturbed excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission in individuals with psychiatric conditions. More recently, changes in functional network dynamics and excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) neurotransmission have been linked to early childhood trauma, a major antecedents for psychiatric illness in adulthood...

This is the first review to quantitatively summarise evidence evaluating MI functioning in children with DCD compared to controls, based on the hand rotation task (HRT). Specifically, MI performance was assessed using three different behavioural performance measures on the HRT (i.e., reaction time, accuracy and efficiency). Eight studies were included for quantitative analysis, yielding data for 176 and 198 children with and without DCD respectively. While children with DCD consistently used MI across all measures of the task, they continually demonstrated reductions in HRT performance relative to controls...

In a meta-analysis of 113 experiments we examined neurophysiological outcomes of learning, and the relationship between neurophysiological and behavioral outcomes of learning. Findings showed neurophysiology yielding large effect sizes, with the majority of studies examining electroencephalography and eye-related outcome measures. Effect sizes on neurophysiological outcomes were smaller than effect sizes on behavioral outcomes, however, neurophysiological outcomes were, but behavioral outcomes were not, influenced by several modulating factors...

Reward functioning in animals is modulated by the circadian system, but such effects are poorly understood in the human case. The aim of this study was to address this deficit via a systematic review of human fMRI studies measuring one or more proxies for circadian function and a neural reward outcome. A narrative synthesis of 15 studies meeting inclusion criteria identified 13 studies that show a circadian impact on the human reward system, with four types of proxy (circadian system biology, downstream circadian rhythms, circadian challenge, and time of day) associated with neural reward activation...

Previous work suggests that infant cry perception is supported by an evolutionary old neural network consisting of the auditory system, the thalamocingulate circuit, the frontoinsular system, the reward pathway and the medial prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, gender and parenthood have been proposed to modulate processing of infant cries. The present meta-analysis (N = 350) confirmed involvement of the auditory system, the thalamocingulate circuit, the dorsal anterior insula, the pre-supplementary motor area and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus in infant cry perception, but not of the reward pathway...

Neural plasticity is the basis for an adaptation process of functional and structural characteristics of the nervous system in response to a changing environment. However, changes during training in healthy volunteers are only partially comparable to that observed in patients with circumscribed lesions. Pathologies can even be associated with maladaptive plasticity. We first introduce basic processes underlying brain plasticity with respect to the sensorimotor system and outline their limitations. A number of methods showing potential in the evaluation of these processes are compared before literature on postlesional plasticity is reviewed...

Our brain has developed a specific system to represent the space closely surrounding the body, termed peripersonal space (PPS). This space has a key functional role as it is where all physical interactions with objects in the environment occur. Here I describe how multisensory neurons in a specific fronto-parietal network map the PPS by integrating tactile stimuli on the body with visual or auditory information related to external objects specifically when they are close to the body. I show how PPS representation is not only multisensory, but actually multisensory-motor, as the PPS system interacts with motor areas to trigger appropriate responses...

Not only is suicidal behavior strongly predicted by its past occurrence, but the risk for recurrence appears to increase with each subsequent attempt. The current paper discusses a potential explanation for this phenomenon, that suicide attempts may leave a residual psychological scar that heightens risk for future attempts. This possibility is evaluated against two alternatives: (i) risk for first and subsequent suicide attempts is accounted for by a shared diathesis pre-existing the first lifetime attempt, and (ii) different rates of developmental decline in risk factors account for differences in prospective number of attempts...

"Cognitive control" describes our ability to strategically bias information processing in line with internal goals. Traditionally, research has focused on delineating the sources of top-down biasing, implicating the lateral prefrontal cortex. The past two decades, however, have seen increasing interest in the regulation of control, that is, how learning processes guide the context-sensitive application of top-down biasing. Here, we review and synthesize recent research into the cognitive and neural mechanisms of this type of "context-control learning"...

BACKGROUND: Research suggests that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with autonomic nervous system dysregulation, but the findings were mixed. METHOD: We conducted a literature review and meta-analysis to quantify the effect of ADHD on vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV). PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus, were searched for case-control or cohort studies reporting measures of vagally-mediated HRV, after a task demand, among individuals with ADHD relative to healthy subjects...

The concept of "emergence" has become commonplace in the modelling of complex systems, both natural and man-made; a functional property" emerges" from a system when it cannot be readily explained by the properties of the system's sub-units. A bewildering array of adaptive and sophisticated behaviours can be observed from large ensembles of elementary agents such as ant colonies, bird flocks or by the interactions of elementary material units such as molecules or weather elements. Ultimately, emergence has been adopted as the ontological support of a number of attempts to model brain function...

Destructured sensory fields, involving homogenous stimulation with little or no time-varying structure, provide a fertile ground for testing hypotheses about predictive coding in the human brain. Extended exposure to sensory patterns that deviate substantially from the statistics of natural environments can elicit a bewildering range of perceptual phenomena, up to and including vivid oneiric imagery. We illustrate how this large variety of perceptual effects can be understood as the experiential counterpart of auto-generated neuronal dynamics, unconstrained by parameters that tune the waking sensorium...

How and where sensory stimuli, such as tones or lights, are linked to valence is an important unresolved question in the field of neuroscience. The auditory cortex is essential to analyse the identity and the behavioural importance of tones paired with emotional events. On the contrary, whether the auditory cortex may also encode information on the emotional-motivational valence of sounds is much more controversial. Here, we reviewed recent studies showing that the activity of cortical neurons reflects information about the content of emotional stimuli paired with tones...

Following the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) concept, major brain circuits are conserved in evolution and malfunctioning of a brain circuit will lead to specific behavioral symptoms. Reverse translation of patient-based findings from Alzheimer's disease (AD), schizophrenia (SZ) and major depression (MD) patients to preclinical models accordingly can be a starting point for developing a deeper understanding of the functional circuit biology and contribute to the validation of new hypotheses for therapeutic intervention in patients...

To improve the translational predictability of treatment strategies for Huntington's disease (HD), sensitive and analogous cognitive outcomes are needed across HD animal models and humans. Spatial memory measures are promising candidates because they are based on 'visual' or 'non-verbal' cognition, and are commonly tested in both animals and humans. Here, we consider the suitability of spatial memory for strengthening translational links between animals and humans in HD research and clinical trials. We describe findings of spatial memory impairments in human HD and mouse models, including which aspects of spatial memory are most affected and at which time points in disease progression...